Hantavirus, three more positive. Wrong sanitary procedure in the Netherlands: 12 staff members quarantined

Also in the evening came the news that 12 staff members of a Dutch hospital, which was treating a hantavirus positive patient evacuated from Hondius, had been quarantined due to incorrectly followed procedures. This was announced today by the same oUniversity Hospital Radboud in Nijmegen, pointing out that procedural errors had occurred during the patient's blood sampling and urine disposal.

"Due to these circumstances, 12 employees will be placed in quarantine for six weeks as a precautionary measure, although the risk of infection is low," the hospital added.

The virus variant detected on board the MV Hondius ship, the hantavirus Andes, is a rare strain that can be transmitted from human to human with an incubation period of up to six weeks.

Meanwhile, the genetic sequence of the Andes hantavirus, relating to the virus isolated from the patient who died in Zurich, Switzerland, has been published. It turns out to be 99% similar to the sequence detected in Argentina in 2018 and this, on initial examination, indicates that the virus would still retain its initial physiognomy, without having accumulated many mutations. Also accessible from the GenBank of the US National Institutes of Health, the sequence was uploaded to the Virological.org platform by the Swiss National Centre for Emerging Viral Infections, the University Hospitals of Geneva and the Institute of Medical Virology at the University of Zurich.

"There is currently no evidence that this variant spreads more easily or causes more severe disease than other Andes viruses," says the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). According to the EU agency, genetic sequencing of the virus 'strongly suggests' that the confirmed positive samples are linked to the same original source of infection. Genomic analyses also show that the virus involved in the outbreak is similar to the Andes virus already known to circulate in South America and 'is not a new variant'.

Passengers evacuated from the cruise ship started to return home on board military and government aircraft after the vessel stopped in Tenerife, Canary Islands. Operations to repatriate the passengers, from more than 20 countries, began on Sunday and were completed on Monday. "The disembarkation of the last passengers and part of the crew to be evacuated from the ship Mv hondius has been completed and it has departed," said the Spanish Minister of Health, Monica Garcia, in confirming the end of the evacuation operation of the 28 occupants of the cruise ship - 6 cruise passengers and 22 crew members - who were transferred to the airport for repatriation. Shortly after 7pm (8pm in Italia), the Hondius set sail for the Netherlands.

The World Health Organisation recommends careful monitoring of former passengersand many countries have quarantined them. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also spoke on the issue. "Although the risk to public health from the virus remains low, it is critical that international health efforts ensure the safety of all, including the passengers and crew of the MV Hondius. Guterres wrote in X, later expressing his 'support' for the Spanish government and other countries 'in managing the Hantavirus emergency in close coordination with colleagues at the WHO'.

"We are working on a circular to take stock and to give information to the regions, with respect to maximum security, but I reassure that there is no danger in Italy today," Health Minister Orazio Schillaci told Tg1. The hantavirus, he added, 'is a virus that has low comntagiosity and so we are calm and we have activated immediately, we are ready but we want to reassure everyone'.